■w. 









THE ROADSIDE FIRE 



AMELIA JOSEPHINE BURR 



'.* ^''i' 









:. I 












•»f. ^ ■'■■ , '■ 



^i^? 




""O r^ ~ j*» 



Class !"^o 3 ^ d 3 

DOOK 1 f g » ^ ^ f 

Gopyrig]it]^°. . 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



THE ROADSIDE FIRE 



"And this shall be for music 

when none else is near, 
"The sweet song for singing, the 

rare song to hear, 
"That only I remember and only 

you admire, 
"Of the broad Road that stretches 

and the Roadside Fire." 

R. L. S. 



Riocljide hue 



^ 



^J^%. 





acij JLoir. 



k 



aeoiaeH^Vmubmttpaiw 



\ 



Copyright igia 
By GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY 



^■CI.A319318 

7U) ! 



T o 
MY FATHER AND MOTHER 



A number of the poems in this volume are here included 
through the courtesy of the publishers of The Century 
Magazine, Scribner's Magazine, The Bellman, The De- 
signer, Hampton's, St. Nicholas, The Catholic World, 
Harper's Bazaar, Everybody's Magazine, and Putnam's 
Magazine, in which magazines they first appeared. 



CONTENTS 



CONTENTS 

Page 

To Those Who Take the Road .... 15 

Outward Bound 16 

The Common Way 17 

The Hand of God .19 

The Dolourous Way ....... 21 

Credo 22 

Borglum's Lincoln . 23 

We Have Piped Unto You 25 

The True Atlas 27 

Battle-Song of Failure 29 

Magdalen to Christ 31 

Baldur in Niflheim 32 

In April 35 

A Churchyard in the Rain 36 

Two Rest-Songs 37 

A Prayer at Evening 39 

Bocklin's Portrait of Himself with Death as 

a Fiddler 40 

Tusitala 41 

The Childless 42 

At Bethlehem .47 



CONTENTS 



Page 

His Mother .......... 50 

Irish Mothers 51 

Icarus 52 

Lilith 53 

The Ghost-Flower 55 

Shiela in the West 56 

A Vagrant 58 

The Loon 60 

The Strayed Elf 61 

Tuscan Song 62 

An Epitaph 64 

The Loser . 65 

Lie-Awake Songs . 67 

Night in Assisi . . . ■ 6g 

Venice 70 

Edinburgh Vignettes 

Argyll and Montrose in St. Giles' . . 72 

Trees in the Castle 73 

Arthur's Seat -74 

Queen Mary 75 

Greyfriars Bobby 76 

At Carmarthen 77 

Michelangelo's Pieta 78 

Where Love Is 80 



[10] 



CONTENTS 



_, . Page 
Bittersweet 

1. Buds in Autumn 82 

2. In His Eyes 83 

3. At the Mirror 84 

4. Impotent 85 

5. The Day of Days 86 

6. From Far Away 87 

7. Good-bye 88 

8. Comfort 89 

9. The Rest is Silence . , . . . .90 

Meeting 91 

The Sting of Death 92 

Worn Out 93 

Not Guilty 94 

Empty Houses 95 

A Dialogue 96 

Rudel Sings of His Lady 97 

Costanza •, • • • 99 

The Unfulfilled 100 

To a Young Girl loi 

The Spring — and You 102 

Partnership 104 

Afterward 105 

To Her — Unspoken 106 

The Unknown God 108 

The Patteran no 



THE ROADSIDE FIRE 



THE ROADSIDE FIRE 



I 



TO THOSE WHO TAKE 
THE ROAD 

7E comrades of the coming time 
Whose faces I foresee, 
These little roadside fires of rhyme 
Are all you know of me. 

LEAVE you as I pass along 
A swiftly fading spark; 
The echo of a marching song 
That dies upon the dark; 



T3UT happy ere the glimmer die 
Another's hand may light 
A beacon where my embers lie, 
To shout across the night. 



[15] 



THE ROADSIDE FIRE 



OUTWARD BOUND 

T TNFADED, give them to the deep, 
^-^ These flowers, the sweetest of the land. 
See, as they fall, a billow leap 
To clasp them in its great white hand! 

"VJO morrow and no yesterday 

-*' ^ For their frail loveliness may be. 

Held like a pearl from earth's decay 

By the imperishable Sea. 



[i6] 



THE ROADSIDE FIRE 



T 



T 



THE COMMON WAY 

HERE'S an hour for each when the angels' 

speech 

To the tongue of man is given — 
When earth is crossed as at Pentecost 
By the rushing fires of Heaven; 
But the common way is for everyday, 
And we common folk must face it 
With a common smile for each common 

mile 
And the little flowers that grace it. 

O trudge and trust in the daily dust 

With a comrade tried and cheery, — 
To lift the eyes to the heartening skies 
When the plodding feet grow weary. 
Is to bless the Road, and the hopes that 

goad 
And the beckoning stars that guide me. 
The common way that's for everyday 
Is the way you walk beside me. 

FT71 



THE ROADSIDE FIRE 



THE COMMON WAY (continued) 

'TpHE world must plod at the call of God 
-■■ On a weary march and holy, 

From best to best, toward an end unguessed, 

But slowly — slowly — slowly. 

So the lot we bear with all life we share, 

And the Goal of all life's growing; 

For the common way that's for everyday 

Is the way of God's own going. 



[18] 



THE ROADSIDE FIRE 



THE HAND OF GOD 

(For the statue by Rodin in the Metropolitan Museum.) 



T 



HEY cannot understand 

What draws them each to eiach; 
In vain they strive to tether 
With futile ties of speech 
The hidden Power that caught them 
Despite themselves, and brought them 
For joy or pain, together 
In bond too close for breach. 



COME struggle to withstand 
The closing fingers' might 
That welds them all unwilling — 
And other lives unite 
Dreaming in joy impassioned 
That they themselves have fashioned 
Their destiny's fulfilling 
In all the Fates' despite. 



[19] 



THE ROADSIDE FIRE 



THE HAND OF GOD (continued) 



A 



I 



ND others the command 

Obey, they know not why; 
They find nor cross nor treasure 
They only live and die. 
Men call it " love " — expressing 
A truth beyond their guessing, 
Since I no words can measure 
Am Love, and Love is I, 



N my eternal Hand 

I crush them silently. 
Shaping the creature human 
To ends it cannot see. 
Unsparing and unwasting, 
Relenting not nor hasting, 
I mould of man and woman 
The god that is to be. 



[20] 



THE ROADSIDE FIRE 



THE DOLOUROUS WAY 

CAD soul that criest in despair 
And bitter pain, 
Dost weep because thou needs must go 
In laden weakness bending low? 

I chose the burden that I bear, 
Nor can complain. 

it because thy feet have stained 
With blood the way? 

Why should I weep that I must tread 

Upon the path which I have spread? 

These are the shards of cups I drained 

But yesterday. 



I 



T 



HEN tell me why such grief is thine — 
My agony 

Is knowing all my penance vain 
To clear the pathway of one pain 
For those whose feet shall follow mine 
In days to be. 

[771 



THE ROADSIDE FIRE 



CREDO 

'TpHIS thing I know: that from the wasted 
*■■ years 

When shaken with false hopes and falser 
fears 

My blinded heart to gods of clay was cling- 
ing, 

Though trembling still from night's long 
fever-dream, 

Forward, into the dawn's calm crescent 
beam 

Now I go singing. 

T KNOW not by what sovereign alchemy 
■*■ God's transmutations must accomplished be. 
Nor how the dunghill to the rose can waken. 
But as one blossom types the tree, I know 
As one soul grows, mankind from pain shall 

grow 
To joy unshaken. 



[22] 



THE ROADSIDE FIRE 



BORGLUM'S LINCOLN 

T?ROM a shop-window that grand face sur- 
"*■ veys 

The street's gay, piteous pageant; sad and 

great, 
Set like a prophet in the market-place, 
A man of sorrows and Grief's intimate, 
He sees the old hypocrisy and shame. 
Meanness and pride, surge past him still the 
same. 

TTIS dream was one with God's — a people 
■^ ■■• freed ; 

A race of slaves his wistful eyes behold. 
Shackled with ignorance and scourged by 

greed — 
Yet in those eyes the dreams have not 

grown cold. 
A younger brother of the Crucified, 
He trusts in man the God for whom he 

died. 



[23] 



THE ROADSIDE FIRE 



BORGLUM'S LINCOLN (continued) 

T7ATHER, we pray thee in this holy place, 
■*■ Here, in the city's turbulent midstream, 

That we may turn from that majestic face 

Touched with the patient passion of thy 
Dream, 

In the marred flotsam of the crowd to see 

Thy miracle of Possibility. 



[24] 



THE ROADSIDE FIRE 



WE HAVE PIPED UNTO YOU 

(For a statue by Gutzon Borglum.) 

QHE piped to him first of the glory of youth; 
*^ " When its splendour 

" Touches his eyelids like morning," she 

thought, " he will wake." 
But he heard not a sound of the sweetness 
imploring and tender 

She made for his sake. 

nr^HEN she piped him the lure of cold peaks 
■*" and the wilderness calling — 

The mortal desire for the dim, unattaina- 
ble goal — 
But she knew as she piped that her notes 
like dead planets were falling 

Through the night of his soul. 



[25] 



THE ROADSIDE FIRE 



WE HAVE PIPED UNTO YOU (continued) 

'\7'ET she piped once again; and of love was 
■*■ the music she made him — 

The love of Humanity linked with the love 

of the One. 
Dreaming, he smiled in his sleep and more 
easily laid him. 

And her piping was done. 

QHE turned away silent — and lacking the 
strain that had lulled him, 
Keen stole the hush to his heart like the 

search of a knife. 
He stirred — he awoke — he arose from the 
dreams that had dulled him 
To anguish — and life. 



[26] 



THE ROADBIDE FIRE 



THE TRUE ATLAS 

(For the statue by Gutzon Borglum.) 

"^rO sullen slave whose loth feet plod 

■*■ ^ Weighed down with burdens heavy piled, 

Kneeling she lifts the world to God 

As she would lift a child. 



A 



LL Woman here the master's art 

Has quickened in the sentient stone, 
Since Motherhood is of the heart, 
Not of the flesh alone. 



T 



HAT one whose body to her will 
Has borne its fruitage bittersweet. 
And she who craved in vain the thrill 
Of wakening hands and feet. 



QHE who has never held her own, 

^ Except in dreams, upon her breast — 

The mother who has proved and known. 

And she who has but guessed, 

[^71 



THE ROADSIDE FIRE 



THE TRUE ATLAS (continued) 

T TNITE in Her who raises earth 
^^ In her unwearying embrace, 

And cherishes toward perfect worth 

The childhood of our race. 



"ly/r OTHER of Earth, sublimely fair 
■*--*• In thy prophetic ecstasy. 

The travail of thy soul shall bear 
The Heaven that is to be. 



[28] 



THE ROADSIDE FIRE 



w 



BATTLE-SONG OF FAILURE 

E strain toward Heaven and lay hold on 

Hell. 
With starward eyes we stumble in hard 

ways, 
And to the moments when we see life well 
Succeeds the blindness of bewildered days, 
IBut what of that? Into the sullen flesh 
The soul drives home the spur with splen- 
did sting. 
Bleeding and soiled we gird ourselves 

afresh — 
Forth, and make firm a highway for the 
King. 



T 



HE loveless greed the centuries have stored 
In marshy foulness traps our faltering feet. 
The sins of men whom punishment ignored 
Like fever in our weakened pulses beat. 
But what of that? The shame is not to 

fail, 
Nor is the Victor's laurel everything. 
To fight until we fall is to prevail. 
Forth, and make firm a highway for the 

King. 



THE ROADSIDE FIRE 



BATTLE-SONG OF FAILURE (continued) 

'V/'EA, cast our lives into the ancient slough 
■■■ And fall we shouting with uplifted face. 
Over the spot where mired we struggle now 
Shall march in triumph a transfigured race. 
They shall exult where weary we have 

wept — 
They shall achieve where we have striven in 

vain, 
Leaping in vigour where we faintly crept, 
Joyous along the road we paved with pain. 
What though we seem to sink in the morass? 
Under those unborn feet our dust shall sing 
When o'er our failure perfect shall they pass. 
Forth, and make firm a highway for the King. 



[30] 



THE ROADSIDE FIRE 



MAGDALEN TO CHRIST 



M 



ASTER, what work hast thou for me,- 

For me, who turn aside for shame 
Before the eyes of my own blame? 
Thou seest. Lord. 



T 



I see. 
HAT shame for me thou shalt endure, 

That thou mayst succour souls afraid, 
Who would not dare to seek for aid 
The mercilessly pure. 



B 



UT must my heart forever show 

These scars of unforgotten pain? 
May it be never whole again? 
Thou knowest, Lord. 



T 



I know. 
HOSE scars I leave thee for a sign 

That bleeding hearts may creep to rest 
As on a mother's sheltering breast 
On that scarred heart of thine. 

[31] 



THE ROADSIDE FIRE 



BALDUR IN NIFLHEIM 

'O long, so long ago I had been slain 

By blindness malice-led, I scarce could tell 
What soul it was that trod in weary pain 
The vestibule of hell. 



O 



NLY at times a sick dream came to me 

That once I had been Baldur and erstwhile 
The gods in heaven had rejoiced to see 
The glory of my smile. 



I 



I 



N the Dim Country's languor I had lost 

The way of smiling, and all genial words 
Fell dumb at the near breath of Hela's frost 
Like winter-smitten birds. 

N that gray land of failure, we who died 
Inglorious deaths, nourished our shadowy 
shame. 
Meeting we turned our downward gaze aside 
Before the Stranger came. 

[3^1 



THE ROADSIDE FIRE 



BALDUR IN NIFLHEIM (continued) 

A CROSS our hush I heard his quick feet ring, 
''■^ For Hke a warrior fresh from fight he trod. 
I looked him in the eyes, remembering 
That I had been a god — 

REMEMBERING that promise of a throne 
Upon the ashes of the burnt-out earth, — 
A perfect kingdom rising all mine own 
From worthlessness to worth. 



A SUDDEN laughter shook the still dank air 
-^^ Like the clear causeless laughter of a 
child. 
Over its dusky meadows bleak and bare 
All the Dim Country smiled, 



ND one went singing in the gloom — " Be- 



^ hold, 



Baldur comes down to the dishonoured 

dead. 
What, shall we find the ways too murk 

and cold 
That the Bright God can tread? 

[33I 



THE ROADSIDE FIRE 



BALDUR IN NIFLHEIM (continued) 

H 



44 T tERE in this land of dreams that are no 

more 
"And spent desires, he laughs, — and in 

his eyes 
" In forms more glorious than once they 

bore 
" We see our dead hopes rise." 

44 A SHES of earth upon hell's midden cast, 
-^"From these," I cried, "shall Baldur 
build his throne — 
" But, oh, the wasted ages that I passed 
" Unknowing and unknown — 

44'^T AY, was I Baldur till I met thine eyes? 
1>I « Thine be the throne ! " But, lo, he was 
not there, — 
Only a wakened world, and a surprise 
Of morning in the air. 



[34] 



THE ROADSIDE FIRE 



IN APRIL 



T AST year I dreamed of days to be, — 
■'— ' Pale April days when you and I 
Should read God's dearest mystery 
Joy-blazoned upon earth and sky. 
'Tis April now — the robins sing — 
New life is green upon the hill — 
But you have blossomed with the spring 
In violet and daffodil. 



T 



HE grass grows brighter on a grave; 

Oh, fellow-comrades of despair. 
Blossom our hearts more blithely brave 
For what lies buried there? 
The lovelier for hidden grief 
Unfolds the spring's green panoply; 
And shall the frail, unconscious leaf 
More godlike live than we? 

Tssl 



THE ROADSIDE FIRE 



A CHURCHYARD IN THE RAIN 

pOOR passionate hearts that lagged or leapt, 
■'' From laughter-hidden wounds that bled, 
And now have lain so long unwept 
In this green village of the dead, 
How loudly to your mirth and pain 
Rang your small world of long ago! 
Now the low lisping of the rain 
Is all the language that you know. 



[36] 



THE ROADSIDE FIRE 



TWO REST-SONGS 

" The Body shall return to earth as it was, and the 
Spirit shall return to God who gave it." 



w 



HEN my Body's use at last 

Cometh to an ending 
Like a well-worn garment past 
Patient wisdom's mending, 
Hold it then no part of me, 
Well as now you love it; 
Lay it somewhere quietly 
With green earth above it. 



T EAVE the wildflowers' native grace 
■'-^ To the tending of the skies 
Uncompanioned, in the place 
Where my body lies. 
Only sometimes feel me near 
When your tenderness is moved. 
And for messengers of cheer. 
Send the flowers I loved. 

TstI 



THE ROADSIDE FIRE 



TWO REST-SONGS (continued) 



T 



N 



HE sunrise needed scarlet, 
The zenith needed blue ; 
Did God forget, Beloved, 
How great my need of you? 

AY, but a need was greater 
In some far nook of Space. 
Thither has gone in silence 
The deamess of your face. 



N 



H 



O star is lost from heaven 
Although it seem to fall; 
The journey and its ending 
Obey the Master's call. 

E sees the Eternal Sequence 

We cannot understand; 
He sets us where we prosper 
The Work that He has planned, 



A 



ND though the human vision 

With loneliness be dim, 
A universe asunder 
Our spirits meet in Him. 

[38] 



THE ROADSIDE FIRE 



A PRAYER AT EVENING 

"V TOW angels walk the hills with flaming feet 
-^ ^ Along the purple margins of the day. 
Father, we beg, who know thy rest is sweet. 
Help for the hearts too pain-distraught to 
pray, 

T T /"E, beckoned to soft beds by kindly sleep, 
' ' Yearn toward the fevered watchers for 
the light; 
Hot, weary eyes that pain's red vigil 

keep — 
Hearts beating loud through the unquiet 
night. 

T7ATHER, thy love doth bless each peaceful 

-■■ room — 

Shall it not still more tenderly be shown 
Where some spent spirit, stumbling in the 

gloom. 
Pants upward to its Calvary, alone? 

[39I 



THE ROADSIDE FIRE 



BOCKLIN'S PORTRAIT OF HIMSELF 
WITH DEATH AS A FIDDLER 

T^EATH like a minstrel sought him playing, 

•*--' laying 

The summons on his soul as on the strings 
The bow, a tender touch caressing, blessing 
His spirit with the consciousness of wings. 

np^HE music drew him half unwilling, filling 
"*- His lifted eyes with Heaven's blinding 
beams. 
The brush he had so strongly wielded, 

yielded 
Futile before the wonder of his dreams. 

nr^HEREFORE he followed unrepining, shin- 
-*• ing 

With that new light that waited for his touch 
To give its beauty mimic being, seeing 
This world no loss, which that outweighed 
so much. 

[4^1 



THE ROADSIDE FIRE 



w 



TUSITALA 

HIGH tale of all that you have told 
Shall flout Oblivion with "Never!"— 

Which song-child of that voice of gold 
Shall live forever? 



T 



T 



HE tale of one whose dauntless eye 
Flashed scorn upon slow-creeping death — 

Who sounded his gay battle-cry 
With failing breath: 

HE song of one whose long despair 

For home's lost heathery hills, he spent 

In brightening with simple prayer 
His banishment. 



QTRONG soul indomitably sweet, 
^ Behold thy fame's immortal part — 
The song whose music was the beat 
Of thy brave heart. 

[4O 



THE ROADSIDE FIRE 



A 



THE CHILDLESS 

T Heaven-gate the mothers stood 

With earthward-bound, expectant eyes; 
The yearning of their motherhood 
Had turned their backs on Paradise — 
And in the fadeless gardens gay 
With angel-mates that made them cheer, 
The children asked amid their play, 
" Will Mother soon be here? " 



T?ROM waiting mothers at the gate, 
■*■ From waiting children on the lea. 
Three Woman-Souls turned desolate 
And met beneath the Knowledge Tree. 
" Where is your child? " 

" There is no child 
" That yearns to me in earth or sky." 
"You never on a cradle smiled?" 
" Not I." 

"Nor I." 

" Nor I." 

[42] 



THE ROADSIDE FIRE 



THE CHILDLESS (continued) 

4 C T LONGED, God knoweth — " said the first. 
"*• And her lips quivered for a space — 
" I thought, am I a thing accurst 
"That I should be denied this grace? 
" But loud the aching limbs of men 
" Unto my hands for healing cried, 
" And in the voice of praises then 
" Methought my longing died. 



"I 



T did not die — it scarce did sleep; 

" Sisters, a woman understands ! " 
(A tear her eyelids could not keep 
Fell bright upon those healing hands) 
" New life I brought unto my age 
" Before it was my time to die — 
" But oh, my wasted heritage ! " 
" Sister, I know." 

"And L" 



[43] 



THE ROADSIDE FIRE 



THE CHILDLESS (continued) 

44 T tAVE I not held beneath my heart 
"*■-*■ " Each of my songs ere it was sung? 
" Its soul is of mine own a part, 
" Its body from mine own was wrung 
" By travail sore as mothers bear — " 
(The second paused with lips compressed, 
And one great tear along her hair 
Rolled down into her breast.) 



"I 



CAST me bleeding to the dust 

" In agony beside the way, 
" And since create a woman must, 
" In human forms I shaped the clay 
" Of roadside dust my blood had wet ; 
" I breathed in them my spirit — oh, 
" It seemed to me they lived — and yet 
" Sister, I know." 

" I know." 



[44] 



THE ROADSIDE FIRE 



THE CHILDLESS (continued) 

^^ XT ONE ever sought me," said the third; 
"^^ ^ "I never heard at eve or mom 

" Across the years the summoning word 
" Of childhood waiting to be bom; 
" I yearned to children everywhere — 
" I sought the little wayside weeds 
" And nursed them to a fruitage fair 
" Of honourable deeds, 



U \ NI 



ND they — they loved me, too, I know — 
*As I loved them — ^and yet — " (a 
space 
All worldless bent the others low 
Before the sorrow of her face. 
And harvest of those wasted years, 
Hot in her eyes and loth to fall. 
Gathered the curse of unshed tears, 
The bitterest of all.) 



[45] 



THE ROADSIDE FIRE 



THE CHILDLESS (continued) 



A 



ND then on still, unhasting feet 

One came to them with greeting brief. 
Her smile so patient and so sweet 
Was sadder than a rain of grief; 
And as they looked into her eyes, 
Such silence fell upon the three 
They heard the songs of Paradise 
Beneath the Knowledge Tree. 



"A 



ND I — " she said — " a Child I bore ■— 

" A Child I could not understand. 
" I watched Him wander more and more 
" Beyond the limits of my land. 
" His love was never less toward me, 
" But He was All, and I but one — 
" He passed unto Humanity, 
" And was no more my son." 



[46] 



THE ROADSIDE FIRE 



o 



N 



AT BETHLEHEM 

MARY, lend thy Babe to me 
To hold upon my breast ! 
It cannot be, it cannot be — 
Thy heart would shake his rest. 
Beneath thy robe I see it leap — 
How in such tumult could he sleep? 

OD'S Mother, shame upon thee now. 
So hard and cold to be ! 
And who art thou — and who art thou 
That criest shame on me? 
A wasted woman, hungering sore 
For the sweet babe I never bore. 

OW for that waste be thine the shame - 
Thy sentence thou dost speak; 
And for that hunger thine the blame. 
Were no lost lambs to seek 
Where crowds unseeing pass and press - 
No little children motherless? 

[47] 



THE ROADSIDE FIRE 



AT BETHLEHEM (continued) 



o 



w 



MARY, let me seek for such! 
Mine eyes with tears were blind — 
Nay, daughter, seek not overmuch; 
Go forth and thou shalt find 
Naked and hungry everywhere 
The little ones thou didst not bear. 

IPE clear of useless tears thine eyes, 
Thy heart of futile dreams. 
Go forth to face realities — 
One deed of mercy seems 
To this my Son and me, more fair 
That a whole life of barren prayer. 



OVE not in word but in good sooth; 
' Deserted and defiled. 

Each little human form in truth 

Harbours the Eternal Child. 

Held in thine arms, His eyes of grace 

Shall open to thy bending face. 



[48] 



THE ROADSIDE FIRE 



AT BETHLEHEM (continued) 

OD'S Mother, I have been to blame — 
Nay, daughter, — no regret. 
Forget thy blame, forget thy shame 
Thy very self forget. 
Give wholly thine awakened heart. 
My Child hath need of all thou art. 



[49] 



THE ROADSIDE FIRE 



HIS MOTHER 



Q OMEWHERE to-night you lie awake 
^ Bearing your bitterness alone. 

I cannot shield, — your heart must take 
Its turn to bleed and cower and moan. 



W 



HEN straight you pressed to your desire 
And all men spoke your praise, I smiled. 
Now naked, smitten, in the mire. 
My arms reach out for you, my child. 



O 



H, could I sing you now to sleep, 

How strong to-morrow from my breast 
To fight and conquer you would leap ! 
Lord, I keep vigil, — send him rest ! 



[50] 



THE ROADSIDE FIRE 



IRISH MOTHERS 

^TpHEIR pulses beat the music of the tides 
-*■ upon the shore, 

The kelp-scent fills their nostrils with the 

sharpness of the spray, 
The very milk we give them has the savour 
of the sea, 
But our children go away — our children 
go away. 

/^H, the long, long time of waiting with our 
^-^ eyes upon the door, 

Through the whitening of the hedges and 

the slash of autumn rain! 
Far, far away, they weary for our faces, it 
may be, — 
Will they never come again — will they 
never come again? 



[51] 



THE ROADSIDE FIRE 



H 



ICARUS 

E soared as surely as an eagle does, 

Higher and higher toward the zenith still, 
And as he rose, a chant came back to us — 
An iron monotone of human will 
Made audible; when listening was vain 
Breathless we followed him with straining 

eyes — 
Adventurer who claimed for man's domain. 
Amazed and impotent, the conquered skies. 
"The Prince of Air is tamed! What hin- 
ders men," 
We cried, " from traversing the Upper 

World 
"In quest of unimaginable things?" 
From awful silence came the answer then, 
As like a challenge at our feet was hurled 
Our champion dead, with broken, silenced 
wings. 



[52] 



THE ROADSIDE FIRE 



H 



H 



LILITH 

ERS is the hour of quiet lamp-lit rest 

When thou dost worship at her altar-fire, 
That gilds the hearth, and lights her gentle 

breast 
Where tired with play, thy child has found 

his rest — 
But I am breathed out of the darkening 

west, 
A twilight wind of wandering desire. 

ERS is the glow of struggle and success, 

The battle-hope of noonday and the street. 
'Tis for her sake that onward thou dost 

press. 
Whose smile, like Heaven's, thy victory 

shall bless — 
But I am in the wistful weariness 
That treads the trailing shadow of defeat. 



[53] 



THE ROADSIDE FIRE 



LILITH (continued) 

TTERS is the night's benignant quieting 
"*• "^ When thy protecting arms her sleep en- 
fold- 
But ere the wakening birds begin to sing, 
Because my kiss is a forbidden thing, 
The dawn's mysterious lips, like mine, shall 

cling 
Upon thine own that quiver and grow cold. 



[54] 



THE ROADSIDE FIRE 



w 



THE GHOST-FLOWER 

HY did I pluck the Ghost-flower pale! 

Like some young recluse, fasting-frail, 
So fair, so fitly placed, it stood 
Amid its pallid sisterhood 
On the dim margin of the wood. 
It scarcely seemed to take its birth 
From the same homely, genial earth 
That flung the columned trunks between 
Such wild exuberance of green. 
So supernaturally pure, — 
No tint nor fragrance to allure 
Caress of butterfly or bee. 
It still might stand there, but for me, 
Serene in sterile sanctity. 
But now — 'tis a corrupted thing, 
A blackened shapeless pulp, to fling 
Aside, to turn from in disgust — 
Poor ruined Saint-flower in the dust! 
How should I know a careless touch. 
So little meant, could harm so much? 
But late regret breeds barren gloom — 
And yonder, see! a Rose in bloom — 

F55I 



THE ROADSIDE FIRE 



w 



B 



SHIELA IN THE WEST 

IND that blows from the east, that blows 

from the home of my people, 
Bring them again to my heart, again to 

mine eyes and mine ears; 
Bring to my dulling ears the sob of the 

waves and my people. 
Bring to my dimming eyes the salt of the 

waves and their tears. 



LOOD of my people that stirs in me, wild 
and cold as the sea, 

Blood of a man long dead, the child of a 
lone dark star — 

How can I speak to the stranger the sor- 
rows that rise in me, 

Rise and fall like the waves that wash on a 
coast afar? 



[56] 



THE ROADSIDE FIRE 



SHIELA IN THE WEST (continued) 



w 



HERE is the hand that shall lead me out 

of the stranger's land? 
Where does the footstep tarry for which 

I listen and long? 
Where are the lips of music whose speech 

I shall understand? 
Where is the man of my people, beautiful, 

wild and strong? 



"I X /"HERE is the man of my people to take me 
^^ home to it all, 

To bring me again to mine own, peace to 

my soul to speak? 
Heart of me, how had I answered had 

yours been the voice to call, 
Changeling child of my people, beautiful, 
wild and weak! 



[57] 



THE ROADSIDE FIRE 



T 



T 



T 



A VAGRANT 

HERE'S a wildness comes upon me with 
the earthy scent of spring; 
When the first young larches tassel, 
Then the soil demands its vassal, 
And I chafe in cot or castle at the time of 
bourgeoning. 

HEN the broad blue sky above me is the 
only roof I need, 
And the sudden shower that chills me 
And the sun's quick smile that thrills me 
And the joy of life that fills me are the 
only friends I heed. 

HEN I turn the world at pleasure like the 
pages of a book — 
Past the minster lofty-towered, 
Past the cottage rose-embowered. 
Past the meadow many-flowered and the 
willow-bordered brook. 

[58] 



THE ROADSIDE FIRE 



A VAGRANT (continued) 

pAST the ruddy little village sunning cheery 
■*■ on the hill, 

Past the town that " vagrant " names me 
And the busy boor that blames me, 
For the Open Road reclaims me and I yield 
me to its will. 



[59] 



THE ROADSIDE FIRE 



w 



THE LOON 

HERE shaken shallows multiply the moon, 

Alone amid the silence laughs the Loon. 

Heard far away across the night, he seems 

Some happy wood-god laughing in his 

dreams. 



[60] 



THE ROADSIDE FIRE 



M 



M 



THE STRAYED ELF 

Y Mother was the Earth, 
My Sister was the Violet; 

The place that gave me birth, 
A hollow where the grasses met. 

There in the silence like a drop of dew, 
Among the little wildling folk, I grew. 

Y Father was the Sun, 

My Brother was a flying Cloud 
Who drowsed when day was done 
Upon a mountain, where the crowd 
Of smiling stars a-tiptoe softly crept 
To kiss him to sweet visions while he 
slept. 

Y home was in a wood, 

A wood that opened to the sky — 

The world of men is good. 

But it is not for such as I! 

So often I must long for what has been 
And weary, weary, weary for mine own 
wild kin! 

feT] 



M 



THE ROADSIDE FIRE 



TUSCAN SONG 

pLUCK the violets in the spring, 
■*- Pluck the almond blossoms; 
Maidens gay, while you may 
Wear them on your bosoms. 
They will vanish with the spring 
Like a dream that closes — 
But the summer's hand will fling 
On your pathway, roses. 

pLUCK the roses thorns and all, 
-'■ Heavy perfume breathing. 
Ere they shed petals red 
From your careless wreathing; 
Yet should they your grasp escape 
There's no cause for sighing — 
With the autumn's generous grape 
Drink to summer dying. 



[62] 



THE ROADSIDE FIRE 



TUSCAN SONG (continued) 

QWEET from every sunny sphere 
^ Where the bloom still lingers, 
Juice divine, infant wine. 
Stains our eager fingers. 
Haste the vintage, for the year 
Old and cold is growing. 
And the winter brings, my dear. 
Only sharp winds blowing. 



M 



AIDENS all, attention lend ; 
Mark my riddle's reading. 
Coy and chill if you will 
Hear your first love's pleading; 
Take the second for a friend, — 
But be wise thereafter 
Lest your beauty sadly end. 
Lone mid other's laughter. 



[63] 



THE ROADSIDE FIRE 



H 



AN EPITAPH 

ERE lies a man whose life was long, 

Yet missed the purest joy of life, 
For sadly soon his soul grew strong 
In battle with this world of strife. 
When past his door the children ran. 
Wistful he watched their frolic wild. 
He was a baby — then a man; 
He never was a child. 



[64] 



THE ROADSIDE FIRE 



THE LOSER 

¥ HEARD the scream of a passing train 
Across the desert to-day; 
It took me back to the town again 
And the clatter of old Broadway, 
The snatch of a song, the clang of a gong, 
The glare from a hundred bars — 
Do I envy him still, in this hush and chill, 
Galloping under the stars? 



T 



HE fight he wins is the fight I lost — 

I in my desert camps, 
Who hardly save in a year the cost 
Of one of his motor-lamps. 
My place is not, and my name's forgot 
In the world that I once called mine. 
Do I greatly care, in this desert air 
That is headier far than wine? 



[65] 



THE ROADSIDE FIRE 



THE LOSER (continued) 



E 



VEN his ultimate victory — 

Do I grudge him that, at last? 
Forever sweet is your smile on me, 
My perfect hope of the past! 
Forever young, as when first you flung 
The spell of your eyes' grey gleam . . . 
Do I grudge him the wife of his prosperous 

life — 
I who have still my Dream? 



[66] 



THE ROADSIDE FIRE 



LIE-AWAKE SONGS 



PASl* my little window 
The stars go by all night; 
One by one, two by two, 
They travel out o£ sight. 

SO many lands to lighten 
In such a little while, 
They have no time to tarry 
For more than just a smile. 

PAST my little window 
Their pleasant way they take, 
To smile on all the children 
Who somewhere lie awake. 



[67] 



THE ROADSIDE FIRE 



LIE-AWAKE SONGS (continued) 



w 



HEN we go so very far 

We have to take the Sleeping-car, 
All night long awake I lie 
To watch the world go marching by. 



pOLES on poles go flashing fast, 
■*■ Strung on miles of shiny wire, 
And snorting engines gallop past 
Like horses running to a fire. 

•'^ REAT big towns with windows bright, 
^^ Houses wee with just one light — 
So much to see as on we leap. 
How can grown folks go to sleep? 



[68] 



THE ROADSIDE FIRE 



NIGHT IN ASSISI 

SILENTLY steal the moonlight's cool white 
feet 
Along the empty street. 
Assisi sleeps — what spell constrains her 
guest 
Whose pillow lies unpressed? 
Not memories of old pride and power and 
lust — 
Mere dust amid the dust 
Those men of blood and fire too long have 
lain 
Ever to live again. 

'I X /"E watch to see the slender form pass by 
' ' Of one who cannot die. 

Above him arches like a shrine alight 

The jewelled Umbrian night. 
Ah, tear-dimmed eyes, and worn ecstatic 
face, 
And hand upraised to trace 
The sign of peace, its sacramental scars 
Kissed by the reverent stars. 

[69] 



THE ROADSIDE FIRE 



VENICE 

T TEAVY her eyes with memories 
"^ "*■ And dim with dreams of other days 
When eager Ufe ran red and gold 
Along her tangled water-ways. 
Now she is old and worn and cold, 
And on her brow the shadow falls 
That dankly grey, in dark decay 
Steals up her leaning palace-walls. 

QHE is as one whose reign is done, 
^ Whose heavy crown is laid aside. 
Though still about her shoulders cling 
The purple shreds of ancient pride. 
And as of old, when for her ring 
Her bridegroom sea stretched passionate 

hands. 
Still thronging meet about her feet 
The wanderers of other lands. 



[70] 



THE ROADSIDE FIRE 



VENICE (continued) 



B 



UT not as then, when kings of men 
Desired her for her beauty's sake ; 
She is a faded tourney-queen 
For whom no more the lances break, 
But round whose knees the children lean, 
Breathless, forgetful of their play. 
With rapt young eyes where mirrored lies 
The splendour lost in long decay. 



H 



ER reign is sure while hearts endure, 
For love alone her throne sustains. 
Drift of the ocean are her ships — 
Her aged loveliness remains. 
The mother-smile is on the lips 
That once the pride of empire curled; 
She draws to rest upon her breast 
The weary children of the world. 



[71] 



THE ROADSIDE FIRE 



EDINBURGH VIGNETTES 

ARGYLL AND MONTROSE IN ST. GILES' 

\ X riDE parted as in life, their marbles lie, 
' ^ The young man in his beauty, and the old. 
Who deeming themselves martyrs, both 

were bold 
To smile on Death. Beyond our holden 

eyes. 
Perchance their souls foregather comrade- 
wise, 
And marvel at the things for which men 
die. 



[72] 



THE ROADSIDE FIRE 



EDINBURGH VIGNETTES (continued) 

TREES IN THE CASTLE 

"VT'EAR after year, Spring storms the citadel 
■*■ And shakes out her green standards from 
the keep 
While up the crag her grassy armies creep. 
Not all the memory of past winters' power 
Avails to sadden that triumphant hour 
When year by year she shouts her glad 
"All's well!" 



[73] 



THE ROADSIDE FIRE 



EDINBURGH VIGNETTES (continued) 

ARTHUR'S SEAT 

l\yTOLTEN from hidden agonies of heat 
'*"-*• These gnarled grey rocks were hurled into 

the light,— 
But now their knolls of gilded green are 

bright 
With children's shining heads; tired limbs 

are flung 
On the kind turf, and Age whose heart is 

young 
Smiles upon Youth's new wisdom gravely 

sweet. 



[74] 



THE ROADSIDE FIRE 



EDINBURGH VIGNETTES (continued) 

QUEEN MARY 

T TERE where her magic burned with troubled 
■*-■■ flame 

Through the grey streets her memory sing- 
ing goes — 
A melody bewilderingly sweet 
That stammering strive we vainly to re- 
peat — 
A secret song whose music no man knows — 
That sounds to no two listeners the same. 



[75] 



THE ROADSIDE FIRE 



EDINBURGH VIGNETTES (continued) 
GREYFRIARS BOBBY 



H 



E deemed the stone a door that closed had 

been 
Between his lord and him; in simple trust 
That to his waiting ope some day it must. 
With pleading tail alert and wistful ears, 
A little living prayer, he watched the years 
Patiently pass, until Death let him in. 



[76] 



THE ROADSIDE FIRE 



D 



AT CARMARTHEN 

OWN quiet dimpling Towy, with the tide 

Coracles drift at twilight, two by two, 
Sharing their nets as they were wont to do 
When Merlin watched them from the river- 
side. 
Minsters and castles Time has made a spoil. 
But still the river bears as once it bore 
These fragile shells to ply their simple toil 
To music of young voices from the shore. 
Along the path the stalwart fishers pass. 
Bearing their little boats to launch anew, 
And speaking in their own peculiar tongue. 
Ghostly their noiseless feet upon the grass; 
They fade into the dimness and the dew. 
The priesthood of a world forever young. 



[77] 



THE ROADSIDE FIRE 



I 



MICHELANGELO'S PIETA 

In St Peter's 

N that great church which is the heart of 

Rome, 

Amid the rich vast dimness, there is one 
Still sheltered spot to which my heart goes 

home. 
Where holding the lax body of her Son 
Sits Angelo's crowned Sorrow. On her knees 
He lies, no more the people's Wonder-Lord, 
But only her dead child ; and as she sees 
Those wounds she cannot heal, the mystic 

sword 
Of Love's most impotence at Love's most 

need. 
That pricks all women, strikes her desolate. 
Though on those sad wounds that no longer 

bleed 
Her eyes are fixed, in agony too great 
For aught but calm, yet turns she silently 
That patient palm to God. 



THE ROADSIDE FIRE 



MICHELANGELO^S PIETA (continued) 

" Lo, here is he, 

" Thy Son and mine ; mine that mysterious 
morn 

" Of silent silver wonder ; mine to know 

" A softly stirring marvel yet unborn; 

" Mine in the manger — in the tender glow 

" Of those first budding years; then — he 
was thine. 

" Behold him now ! He is mine own once 
more, 

" Passive in death upon this heart of mine 

" As in warm sleep his baby limbs I bore. 

" Take him — again I give him up to thee. 

" Thou art his spirit — take the form I 
gave, 

" This body, blood and bone and flesh of 
me, 

" That would be mine though in the deep- 
est grave — 

" He is all thine." 

O heart that holds the sword ! 
Pray for all mothers. Mother of our Lord ! 



[79] 



THE ROADSIDE FIRE 



WHERE LOVE IS 

T> Y the rosy cliffs of Devon, on a green hill's 

crest, 
I would build me a house as a swallow builds 

its nest; 
I would curtain it with roses, and the wind 

should breathe to me 
The sweetness of the roses and the saltness 

of the sea. 

"IXiTHERE the Tuscan olives whiten in the hot 

blue day 
I would hide me from the heat in a little 

hut of grey, 
While the singing of the husbandmen 

should scale my lattice green 
From the golden rows of barley that the 

poppies blaze between. 



[80] 



THE ROADSIDE FIRE 



WHERE LOVE IS (continued) 

"VJ ARROW is the street, Dear, and dingy are 
^ ^ the walls 

Wherein you wait my coming as the twi- 
light falls. 
All day with dreams I gild the grime till 

at your step I start — 
Ah, Love, my country in your arms — my 
home upon your heart! 



[8i] 



THE ROADSIDE FIRE 



BITTERSWEET 



BUDS IN AUTUMN 

"^TO wind among the branches grieves — 
The leaf lies where it fell ; 
And see, below the scar it leaves 
A bud begins to swell. 

'^TEW joy may from old pain have birth 
'*' And buds in autumn start — 

But that is in God's generous earth — 

Not in a human heart. 



[82] 



THE ROADSIDE FIRE 



BITTERSWEET (continued) 



I 



2 

IN HIS EYES 

N your clear eyes I fancied I might find 

New dawn of joy upon my pathway cast, 
Whose light upon my brow should fling be- 
hind 
Forevermore the shadows of the past; 
But when to-night I looked into your eyes. 
My face looked back at me, and there I read. 
Patient and pale and pitifully wise 
The weary semblance of a love long dead. 
Why should we love and suffer, you and I, 
Only to learn at last that love can die? 



[83] 



THE ROADSIDE FIRE 



BITTERSWEET (continued) 

3 
AT THE MIRROR 



T 



HE grey like snow in autumn lies 

Too early on my head, 
And in my weary, wandering eyes 
The dreams have long been dead; 



A ND yet I am not ill to see 
'^ ^ Although I am not fair; 

Many have found their hope in me, 
And many their despair. 

QOME loved my bad, and some my good, 
^ And some my outward show — 

And one, the heart he understood — 

The heart you do not know. 



[84] 



THE ROADSIDE FIRE 



BITTERSWEET (continued) 



T 



T 



4 
IMPOTENT 

HE cautious coward in my heart 

Shrinks from untrodden ways — and yet 
I would that we had never met, 
Or else that we might never part. 

HE folly of my dreams I see, 

Smiling with wise cold eyes — and then 
I feel in all the world of men 
There is no other mate for me. 



I 



T seems that I have always been 

Thus crippled and condemned to wait 
Forever crouching at the gate 
Where I may never enter in. 



[85] 



THE ROADSIDE FIRE 



BITTERSWEET (continued) 

5 
THE DAY OF DAYS 

A CRY o£ the weary year — 
•^ ^ A flurry of snow on the blast — 

And the red-streaked grey of a winter day 

Slipping into the past — 

But my listening heart can hear 

A bird that must sing and sing, 

A song of the morn and of Youth re-bom, 

And of Spring — Spring — Spring! 



[86] 



THE ROADSIDE FIRE 



BITTERSWEET (continued) 

6 
FROM FAR AWAY 



O 



O 



F your day I claim no part, 

Not a look, not a touch, 
Not a beat of your dear heart — 
That were joy too much. 

NLY let me take my place 

In your dreams through the night. 
I will pass and leave no trace 
Ere the east grows bright. 



VT'OU shall waken with a smile, 
■*• Smiling still as you muse 

How you dreamed of love awhile — 
But forgetting whose. 



[87] 



THE ROADSIDE FIRE 



BITTERSWEET (continued) 

7 
GOOD-BYE 

T ET us keep our spell unbroken, 
■*"^ Hoard our trove of faery gold. 

Safe as death are words unspoken — 

Safe is love untold. 

T ET us learn our lesson bravely; 
"^ Sorrow serves the stout of heart. 

Came we to our meeting gravely — 

Laughing let us part. 



[88] 



THE ROADSIDE FIRE 



BITTERSWEET (continued) 

8 
COMFORT 



W 



E plucked the flower ere it could fade, 

Ere it could die; do you regret? 
The pages in whose care we laid 
The blossom by are fragrant yet. 



"^rO storm upon it now can beat, 
No touch amiss one petal shed. 
It is immortal, like the sweet 
Remembered kiss of one long dead. 



A 



ND though life holds for you and me 

One bitter hour of joy denied, 
We shall be glad in days to be 
We plucked the flower before it died. 



[89] 



THE ROADSIDE FIRE 



BITTERSWEET (continued) 

9 
THE REST IS SILENCE 

O forth and seek — the world is wide; 

Go forth to do and be, 
And One shall greet thee like a bride, 
A worthy mate for thee. 



W 



HEN thou shalt trample evil down 

And set the good above. 
She shall award thy labour's crown, 
The wonder of her love. 



B 



UT if the evil be too strong 
And if thou fail and fall — 
If all in vain thou love and long 
And she ignore thy call — 



w 



HEN spent and beaten utterly 

And sick at soul thou art, 
Come back to me, — come back to me 
And rest thee in my heart. 



[90] 



THE ROADSIDE FIRE 



MEETING 

T IKE a spent swimmer measuring the waves 
"^^ That mark the strand of safety still un- 

won, 
And hearing far below the dark sea-caves 
Whisper their promise of oblivion, 
I fought across the years of bitterness 
Toward beaches distant as the sunset-land, 
Until at last my aching feet could press 
A sweet security of shining sand. 
I stood upon the shore of my desire. 
Bruised by the savage btiffets of the sea 
And dripping with its phosphorescent fire. 
But safe at last. And then, well known to 

me 
As my first prayer, on that new coast you 

came 
With outstretched hands, and called me by 

my name. 



[91] 



THE ROADSIDE FIRE 



THE STING OF DEATH 

A FTER long pain, I fell asleep; 
'^-*' And then you came, when all the rest 
Had wept and gone. You did not weep. 
But laid your brow upon my breast 
And whispered, " You who do not hear — " 
(To me, who made your words my bread !) 
" I never knew I loved you. Dear, 
" Until they told me you were dead. 
" I have been blind, but now I see ; 
" I love you, love you — for the sake 
" Of your long love, come back to me ! " 
And even then I did not wake. 



[92] 



THE ROADSIDE FIRE 



Y 



WORN OUT 

OU played upon my heart as on a lute, 
And when you found it answered to your 

touch, 
Curious, you proved your power overmuch 
Nor would you let it rest a moment mute. 
At last, so mercilessly fingered o'er. 
The weary strings grew slack ; now, for your 

sake 
Or any man's, that listless lute can make 
Music, or even discord — nevermore. 



[93] 



THE ROADSIDE FIRE 



NOT GUILTY 

T LOVED him; yes, I know. 
■■■ I had the strength to front him, eye to eye. 
And when he cried, " You love me, dear ! '* 
— to lie. 
Because I loved him so. 

T>ECAUSE my love was strong 
^-^ Though my weak flesh was wasted as by 
fire 
I saved him from his own wild heart's 
desire. 
My King should do no wrong. 

QUCH has my battle been, 
^ And such the measure of my victory. 
Which white untested soul that shrinks 
from me 
Dare call this love a sin? 



[94] 



THE ROADSIDE FIRE 



EMPTY HOUSES 

OH UTTERS like lids have decorously closed 
^ The window that was wont to frame your 
head ; 
Its face to decent emptiness composed 
Your house lies dead. 



TN twilight that forgets the name of dawn 
-*■ The grey dust gathers in the silent hall; 
Outside upon the stretch of weedy lawn 
The dead leaves fall. 



'ET shall this house return to living guise 
And smile warm-hearted on the world of 
men. 
House in my heart, whose dead, blank-shut- 
tered eyes 
Can never wake again! 



[95] 



THE ROADSIDE FIRE 



A DIALOGUE 

IT by thy lips' ethereal fire, 
' White flames of God arise in me. 
I hear the voice of old desire 
That sighs in me, that sighs in me. 
Thine eyes hold Joy's immortal lore — 
I gaze and sorrow dies in me. 
The bitterness that once I bore 
Still cries in me, still cries in me. 
Thou art imperishable Youth — 
Men turn as by a spell to thee. 
The old, old tale of tarnished truth 
I tell to thee, I tell to thee. 
Life that doth aureole thy head 
My being doth compel to thee. 

Nay, for my place is with the dead — 
Farewell to thee — farewell to thee. 



[96] 



THE ROADSIDE FIRE 



RUDEL SINGS OF HIS LADY 

QHE is the goal and the desire; 

^ She is the altar and the fire; 

The body of Love and the soul thereof, 
And she will hear me when I speak. 

' She is the hope and the fulfilling; 
She is the tempest and the stilling; 
She is the doing and the willing, 
And I shall find her when I seek. 

QHE is the passion and the peace ; 

*^ She is the bond and the release; 

The laughter and tears of the vanished years, 
And she will know me when we meet. 
She is the striving and the winning; 
She is the penance and the sinning; 
She is the end and the beginning. 
And I shall kneel before her feet. 



[97] 



THE ROADSIDE FIRE 



RUDEL SINGS OF HIS LADY (continued) 

QHE is the glory and the shame; 

^ She is the guerdon and the blame; 
The chastening rod and the ruth of God, 
And she will lift me up to bliss. 
Then end together song and sighing, 
And let me die, if in my dying 
Upon her perfect bosom lying 
I yield my spirit to her kiss. 



[98] 



THE ROADSIDE FIRE 



I 



COSTANZA 

N the sun I sat and spun, 

Dreaming of a wedding-gown, — 
For youth and love were in the air 
That day you wandered through our town. 



T 



HROUGH the town, your eyes of brown 

Smiled on all they chanced to see. 
I sat among the lilacs there — 
Passing, you smiled on them and me. 



QMILED on me so carelessly — 

^ Went your way nor glanced again. 

A world of women claimed your care; 

You left for me no other men. 



[99] 



THE ROADSIDE FIRE 



THE UNFULFILLED 

TN sleep's uncertain borderland 

^ Where dreams by thousands come and go, 
Two heart to heart forever stand 
Curtained by clouds of whirling snow. 

^^ 'VfOTHING in dreams too great to 
-*-^ dare — " 

" This clothes with joy the shivering 

years 
" When in my eyes my soul stood 

bare — " 
I woke at first with bitter tears; 

"DUT now the wakening brings no start. 

""^ I smile, remembering the day 
Silent, I offered you my heart. 
And you in silence turned away. 



[lOO] 



THE ROADSIDE FIRE 



Y 



I 



TO A YOUNG GIRL 

OU touch me to a tenderness 
Too deep for you to know: 
A mother smiles and sighs to trace 
The embers of her girlhood grace 
Rekindled in her daughter's face — 
I brood upon you so. 



LAY about you thoughts that bless. 

For in your eyes' pure glow 
The hope that was my youth I see, 
And warm my chilled heart eagerly 
At the same dream that died in me — 
Lord Love, how long ago! 



[lOl] 



THE ROADSIDE FIRE 



THE SPRING — AND YOU 

'O shyly came the Spring this year, 

We knew not when it came; 
We scarce had thought it might be near, 
When lo, the boughs aflame 



W 



ITH tremulous gold and crimson fires - 

Spring Beauty starred the lawn. 
Like children's laughter were the choirs 
Of waking birds at dawn; 



A 



ND while we stared as in a dream, 

And wondered if 'twere true, 
Merry with cowslips was the stream, 
And all the roadside blue. 



Y? RE we could triumph in the first 
"*-^ Lone, long-expected flower. 

It seemed the frozen world had burst 

To blossom in an hour. 



[102] 



THE ROADSIDE FIRE 



THE SPRING — AND YOU (continued) 

T IKE Spring you stole upon me, dear 
■^ I knew not when nor how. 

I only know that you are here, 

And life's in blossom now. 



[ 103] 



THE ROADSIDE FIRE 



PARTNERSHIP 



VTOUR eyes the dawn that gives me wing 
"*■ To rise my best, 

And mine the twilight stars that bring 
Your hour of rest. 



Y 



Y 



OUR hands our common strength to do 

Bright deeds and bold, 
And mine your life's great rudder true 

By faith to hold. 

OUR breast my shelter from the dread 

Of days too dreary, 
And mine a pillow for your head 

When you grow weary. 



T 



HUS linked, to meet in comrade-trust 

Each changing hour. 
And at the end, to know our dust 

Merged in one flower. 

[104] 



THE ROADSIDE FIRE 



AFTERWARD 

X X /"HEN weary soul and body are at rest, 
* " Dream not your head is pillowed on my 

breast 
Lightly, and yet so close that you can hear 
My heart, and feel my half-unconscious 

kiss 
Upon your drowsy lids — ah, dream not 

this! 
You would but waken — and remember, 

Dear. 

'PXREAM rather I have kept the old-time vow 

^^ Made half in jest — do you recall it now? 

And from the Silence have come back to you 

To watch beside you for our love's dear 

sake. 
And bless you as you sleep. Then do not 

wake. 
Beloved, but dream on — that dream is true. 



THE ROADSIDE FIRE 



TO HER — UNSPOKEN 

/"^ O to him, ah, go to him, and lift your eyes 
^-'^ aglow to him; 

Fear not royally to give whatever he may 

claim. 
All your spirit's treasury scruple not to 

show to him. 
He is noble — meet him with a pride too 
high for shame. 

QAY to him, ah, say to him that soul and body 
^ sway to him; 

Cast away the cowardice that counsels you 

to flight, 
Lest you turn at last to find that you have 

lost the way to him — 
Lest you stretch your arms in vain across a 
starless night. 



[io6] 



THE ROADSIDE FIRE 



TO HER — UNSPOKEN (continued) 

"DE to him, ah, be to him the key that sets 
'■■'^ joy free to him — 

Teach him all the tenderness that only love 

can know — 
And if ever there should come a memory of 

me to him, 
Bid him judge me gently for the sake of 
long ago. 



[107] 



THE ROADSIDE FIRE 



I 



THE UNKNOWN GOD 

BUILT of dreams a temple cool and white; 
I shut from human sight its halls untrod, 
And kindled me a small expectant light 
Upon an altar to the Unknown God. 



B 



I 



UT in my folly I was not content 
To wait his coming by the perfumed 
flame; 
Vainly to seek him in the world I went 
That in my worship I might speak his name. 

FOLLOWED wandering fires and often lost 
The path I trod too eagerly to see ; 
After long years I learned at bitter cost 
How little all my pains might profit me. 



W 



HEN to my temple I crept home at last 
Marred was its beauty — soiled and 

smeared with clay 
Where feet profane the unguarded door 

had passed, 
And the untended fire in ashes lay. 

[108] 



THE ROADSIDE FIRE 



THE UNKNOWN GOD (continued) 

"VTOW to the Road the door stands open wide 
'*' ^ And cuts the darkness with a sword of 
light 
That weary wayfarers may turn aside 
And find within a lodging for the night. 

'npHE altar-fire glows generous and warm, 
-■■ And even now a pilgrim leaden-shod 
With weariness, takes refuge from the 
storm. 



Lo, in his temple stands the Unknown God. 



[109] 



THE ROADSIDE FIRE 



Y 



THE PATTERAN 

OU set the Patteran for me 

Along the world you wandered through, 
Lest mazed and weary I might be 
And miss the way that led to you. 



H 



OW oft at open doors aglow 

Have I delayed my restless feet 
And wondered, "Shall I further go?" 
For just a hungry heart's quick beat, 



W 



HEN on the threshold I have seen 

Your woodland signal where it lay 
With onward-pointing finger green 
To warn me that I might not stay. 



T 



HE Gypsy knew the Gypsy's call — 

It led my wayward feet aright. 
Together as the shadows fall 
We kneel our roadside fire to light. 

[no] 



THE ROADSIDE FIRE 



THE PATTERAN (continued) 



T 



HE fire we kindle, hand to hand 

Shall cheer the way for weary men, 
Till our great Chieftain give command 
" Break camp and take the road again." 



'T^HEN, Love, whoever goes before, 
■*• If it be you, if it be I, 

Shall set the Patteran once more 
Across the spaces of the sky. 



[Ill] 



AUG 8 mz 



Deacidified using the Bookkeeper proc< 
Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide 
Treatment Date; Sept. 2009 

PreservationTechnologi 

A WORLD LEADER IN COLLECTIONS PRESERVA 

111 Thomson Park Dnve 
Cranberry Township, PA 16066 
(724) 779-2111 















■■'ii>''' 





■rfJj 


!?: 


i-'V.^V' 




t^i: 




■■ "'.« 


;-' 


; vf 




sT'ji, 



:^"^^'J 









f^fV 






': > t^-" 






